Official Final Fantasy VII Remake Chapter 1 Retrospective Discusses Barret’s Biceps, Granular Artistic Choices & More
Square Enix has begun a new retrospective series on its blog, looking back on Final Fantasy VII Remake chapter-by-chapter on a weekly basis. Following the recent Final Fantasy VII 25-year anniversary broadcast, Chapter 1 of Remake was discussed with various development team members.
A fair number of the questions and responses are expected, such as the meaning of the posters in the Midgar Subway and other hyper-specific facets of the game’s design. Still, one particular aspect that intrigued me was the following line regarding how the team didn’t actively refer to the original game’s script:
Instead, we put a lot of emphasis on the feelings and impressions that we got from a particular scene when we played the original and would enhance those moments in the new dramatization.
This freedom of expression is honestly pretty cool as it helps hone in on the fact that creative liberties weren’t discarded in favor of staying true to the original Final Fantasy VII. Furthermore, I feel that the emphasis on collective individualism unrestricted by past shackles depicts more genuine characterization.
Another line that struck me was the following:
Also, not having the timer count down during the Scorpion Sentinel fight like it did in the original FFVII was because we felt that it gave a lot of stress to players who were not used to the battle system yet. So we decided it should start after the battle finished instead.
I can’t imagine that first boss being fought with a timer on a first playthrough unless it were exceptionally generous since bosses in Remake take far longer than they do in the original. I’m ultimately glad they chose to forego the timer for that segment.
The most random question was whether Barret could wield Cloud’s Buster Sword, and the response was oddly detailed:
Barret’s biceps are clearly massive when you see them in game. As an easy-to-understand comparison, the surface area of a cross section of Barret’s upper arm is around four times larger than Cloud’s.
If you extrapolate this difference in terms of simple physical strength, then yes, Barret does look like he could lift and chop with the Buster Sword in one hand.
However, that is a very different thing to asking if he could wield it as a weapon. If we assume that the Buster Sword is made from iron then it would be a gigantic sword that weighs around 40kg and there would be many factors required to actually wield it effectively, other than just brawn.
Basically, this shows just how amazing Cloud is for being able to use it so elegantly!
So I guess that’s a yes? At least on a conceptual level.
I recommend reading the entirety of this first Final Fantasy VII Remake Revisited series via Square Enix’s official website for exceedingly more granular insights.
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